[blandin]

Ok then, what does a sensible person do while waiting for their Pedal Force frame to arrive, especially when said frame will be here in 4 week or so and move you up to 9 bikes? The sensible person would bide their time by riding the bikes they do have. Yes, that’s what a sensible person would do.

What did I do? Well I bought another frame and it arrived on Monday. Anyway, I have already beat myself up for buying another frame, saving everyone else the trouble – on to my story.

I was looking at a used Serotta Fierte Steel frame on eBay in my size that caught my eye and decided to do a little research on Serotta and the Fierte in particular. Among other places I looked, I checked out the Serotta forum and discovered that a Serotta forum member had already posted on the eBay frame asking what people thought. Another Serotta forum member replied that a brand new frame with fork and the lifetime factory warranty was available at a MA dealer for not much more that the eBay price, and he provided a link to the shop's web site.

It turned out to be a brand new ’05 Serotta Fierte Steel frame with a $1,200 list price selling for $649 including the factory spec. Kestrel EMS Pro OS Fork - so obviously I had no choice in the matter and had to buy it! This Serotta is far from being a lightweight, with the frame weighing 1950 grams and the Kestrel fork coming in at 510 grams, but I am looking for all day ride quality on this build and weight is not a concern.

The build was finished today, but due to heavy rains I haven’t been able to try it out as of yet, or even adjust the saddle - and the pictures that follow are taken in the garage instead of in front of the more traditional white garage door. I ask for your forgiveness for this faux pas.

In any case, I will post additional pictures and a ride report when the weather clears. In the mean time, my garage shots will have just have to do.

Here’s the build:

Frame: ’05 Serotta Fierte Steel
Fork: Kestrel EMS Pro OS
Groupset: Shimano Ultegra 10 speed
Crankset: Shimano R700 compact
Headset: Chris King 1 1/8 black
Bars: Ritchey WCS OS
Stem: Ritchey WCS 4-Axis 100mm stem
Seatpost: Ritchey WCS alloy
Saddle: Fizik Aliante – red
Bar Tape: Fizik Silver
Bottle Cages: Tacx Tao Silver
Wheels: Mavic Ksyrium Elite’s
Tires: Vittoria Open Corsa CX


Total weight: 20 lbs on the nose.

And now for the pictures . . .

The frame has a gorgeous jewel like finish and is absolutely flawless. In some of the pictures it appears otherwise, but this is all due to the flash and reflections.

Let me know what you think.

Full frame:

Seattube:

Made in USA label:

Columbus tubing label:

This is very cool – signatures of everyone who worked on the frame:

 

[Lifelover]

Very Nice! I suspect someone from the fashion will comment on you saddle set back.

You need to update you signature now!

 

[blandin]

Thanks for the compliment! As to the saddle, you missed this statement in my post, "I haven’t been able to try it out as of yet, or even adjust the saddle." It's just too damn wet, maybe I'll get at it tomorrow.

 

[Veni Vidi Vici]

I think it looks great....

and at a great price as well. What size is it?

Veni Vidi Vici

 

[AlexCad5]

1950 gm frame! man that is much heavier than I would have ever expected. Nice looking bike though.

 

[blandin]

and at a great price as well. What size is it?

Veni Vidi Vici

It is 58cm.

 

[blandin]

1950 gm frame! man that is much heavier than I would have ever expected. Nice looking bike though.

Serotta's philosophy is to build for strength and longevity, as opposed to weight saving techniques, although they do offer frames that are quite a bit lighter. In any case, the finished bike doesn't feel as heavy as the frame suggests. My first few rides will tell me if the weight is a noticeable issue.

 

[Len J]

Great buy..........

let us know how it rides.

Len

 

[blandin]

The rain has subsided, so I have had a chance to adjust my saddle, put the computer on, take a ride around the neighborhood and shoot a couple of proper garage door pictures.

Impressions from my neighborhood ride. This bike does not ride as heavy as it is, which is a pleasant surprise, and is soaks up road buzz, bumps and irregularities with ease – it’s crazy comfortable too. I am going to try to get out for a longer ride later this afternoon in order to get a better idea of overall performance.

So far so good!

The Elite’s look better in daylight.

I thought a close up of the Shimano R700 compact crank would be nice.

Mandatory read derailleur shot. I’m going to have to replace the clear chain stay protector.

 

[allons-y]

looks nice.

serotta makes crazy nice frames. my dad has one and my mom is looking at one as well. very smooth riding, responsive, comfy, works of art, imo.

1 thought - red handlebar tape? or black. something about the silver strikes me as odd? red tires possibily as well?

 

[blandin]

Thanks for the nice comments. As to the bar tape, the silver sounded good to me before the build, and now I'm thinking I'll go with black. The Vittoria Open Corsa tires were chosen for their high TPI count to compliment the steel ride, and I think I'll ride them for a while, and maybe try red a little further down the road.

 

[allons-y]

Thanks for the nice comments. As to the bar tape, the silver sounded good to me before the build, and now I'm thinking I'll go with black. The Vittoria Open Corsa tires were chosen for their high TPI count to compliment the steel ride, and I think I'll ride them for a while, and maybe try red a little further down the road.

black would work as well. what about some sort of black/red tape?

vittoria open corsa's are pretty sweet tires. i was just thinking something red could be cool as well, but there are things more important to looks in a bike....

 

[barry1021]

Nice. I have two of them, same color, one I bought from my LBS and is my first quality road ride, the second I bought on EBAY and built out. The first is three years old and rides as nice as day one. If you are not familiar with the Serotta line, this is the bottom of the line, so in terms of weight, sloping top tube, etc, it's different than the custom models.

b21

 

[acckids]

Flawlessly spec'd bike(I would probably gone with black handlebar tape but I'm too conservative). That is a great "one bike" bike. Seriously, I bet that bike has 98% of the performance of a bike costing thousands more and weighing a 1lb or 2 less.

 

[blandin]

Thanks acckids! After looking at the bike for a couple of days, I agree that the bar tape should be black. A friend of mine whipped up a Photo Shop version of how that would look.

 

[acckids]

You nailed it.

 

[4ster]

Similar taste

Blandin, looks like we have similar tastes. Mine's a size 56. I've had it for about a year and am also very happy with the ride. I hope you get many miles of enjoyment from yours.

 

[allons-y]

blandin.

what about black tacx cages (photoshop them). just struck me.

 

[blandin]

I actually have an extra set of Tacx Tao in black, so Photo Shop won't be necessary. I may just switch them out and see what it looks like. Thanks for the suggestion.

 

[blandin]

4ster, I didn't have time to respond to your post when I saw it earlier today, but I wanted to let you know that I found the picture of your bike when I was doing my research on buying the Fierte. Your great looking build was the straw the broke the camels back, and lead me to placing my order - so many thanks!! I also took a your lead on the bottle cages.

Looking at your carbon seatpost, I wonder if there is really additional smoothness to be had going that route. Have you run yours with an alloy post? I have a couple of spare carbon seatposts, including a Specialized with zertz insert. I just might have to give it a try.